November 28
2015

These choices all reflect quite a specific taste, but they're a good selection. Nice to see Dollhouse getting some love!

My list would include some of the lighter episodes too. Doppelgangland is always up there for me, and for Firefly I'd pick Our Mrs Reynolds. Okay, those are still dark, but in a less obvious way.

An episode from Dollhouse which I don't see often on these lists is Needs. In its position late in the short season, I honestly believed some of the Actives had a chance of escaping. And then there's that moment when you realise that the Actives' original personalities are no more than another imprint-of-the-week and their escape is only another engagement. It's a beautiful self-contained episode, and the chills come from not knowing beforehand that it's a one-off.

Pleasantly surprised to see so much Dollhouse love. Very surprised at the exclusion of OMWF. I don't know what 13 eps I would choose from the entire Whedonverse but I do know three of them off the top of my head Out of Gas, The Body, and Fool for Love. And OMWF. Okay, I know four of them.

Belonging is definitely a Dollhouse episode I still think about from time to time, and even though I don't like these subjective lists, glad it was included. Priya's lack of agency, maybe more so than any doll in the Rossum Corp. program, her memory of Victor before she was a doll, her memory through that great painting of something dark and dangerous looming in the background (Nolan), Echo's awakening and wanting to help the others. I think it encapsulates really well the whole premise of the series: Using others through coercion or violence of some type for your own enjoyment/agenda; an analogy for the ongoing abuse of women and men in society. Very uncomfortable to watch, and so it should be.

The thing about brilliant episodes is that you wouldn't know how brilliant they are if all the episodes before and after didn't exist. The only episode of any show where this might not be true is Doctor Who's "Blink". And even that episode requires a bare minimum of background on Doctor Who to really understand what is going on at the end.

One thing I, definitely, agree with: NOT FADE AWAY is the best series finale of ANY show.

I agree with you, totally!

As for the list presented, all of them are good episodes. I don't know if I could narrow it down to 13 between all of Joss's series, but The Body, OMWF, Not Fade Away, A Hole in the World, Jaynestown, Our Mrs. Reynolds, Dopplegangland... lots of others...belong on it.

I love me some Dollhouse love. I'd probably throw all the episodes which feature lots of Amy Acker in there. I'm still incredibly sad that she couldn't stay on as a regular for the whole season due to being on Happy Town. If at least Happy Town had been good or her role had been worthy of her talent.

Nice list! With lots of Dollhouse love. Some of my favorite funny episodes include Dopplegangland, Intervention, Our Mrs. Reynolds, Smile Time, Briar Rose (ok, not the whole episode, but I cannot get over the medicinal carrots bit).

@NYPinTA "Blink" from Doctor Who is one of my favorite episodes of television.